The huge webbed door slid upward and the Zarbi pushed the Doctor and Vicki roughly through it.
They paused on the threshold, blinking painfully as the full blinding power of the great pulsing light from within struck them like a blow. Vicki groped, her eyes narrowed painfully against its brutal glare, as terrified as if it were total darkness.
‘Can you see it... Doctor... can you see...?’
‘I... can see nothing, child.’
The Zarbi withdrew, closing the immense webbed gate behind them, shutting them in with the great light, the pulsing, the throbbing.
Then the Voice spoke. It boomed almost as hollowly and from as great a depth as it had within the Dome. It grated deeply and echoed all around the chamber.
‘Welcome... you are the first humans to... enter my kingdom-om...’
Vicki started to hear the Voice the Doctor had spoken of for the first time. Doctor Who raised a hand and shielded his eyes against the radiance. He spoke in the direction of the sound.
‘Who are you? What do you want?’
‘Come!’ the Voice ordered. ‘Approach, earth people!
Your cells, your earthly mental processes, will provide my most enriching sustenance yet.’
A realization of what this creature was suddenly dawned on Doctor Who with those words. It was as though all his guessing, his wondering about it had really been a groping search for the right key to the mystery of this Intelligence
— and these words had unlocked it in a single sentence.
‘You’re a parasite!’ he exclaimed. ‘A super-parasite. Of course!’
‘A super
power
!’ the Voice corrected him. ‘Absorbing not only territory, but the best of its riches — its energy, culture. The Menoptera are nothing — you and your friends are a choicer prize.’
‘What’s it saying, Doctor?’ Vicki whispered above the deep throbbing sound. ‘What does it mean?’
The Doctor paused.
‘It’s a kind... of spider, Vicki — a cosmic spider!’ His face was puckered against the glare. ‘It draws its victims in, and when it feasts, it acquires their knowledge... their skills...’
Vicki started fearfully and turned to look back into the great light, trying to penetrate it. Again the Voice boomed the order.
‘Approach... approach — you cannot resist my power...!’
Vicki suddenly lurched a half-step forward and stood there, wobbling, fighting against a force that drew her inward. Doctor Who flung out a hand, groping in the blazing light to hold her back.
‘Don’t move, child!’ he rapped. ‘Stay where you are!’
‘I can’t help it!’ she breathed, half-sobbing with fear.
‘Doctor... it’s... pulling me...!’
The Voice grated. ‘Do not fight against it... approach...
approach... both of you...!’
‘You mustn’t move, Vicki!’ The Doctor called desperately. ‘Whatever you do, don’t move!’
Vicki struggled to remain where she was, but was pulled another inexorable lurching pace forward. Doctor Who, too, felt himself stumbling as he fought to keep his feet planted firmly where they were. The great blurry radiance which fogged the centre of the chamber with its blazing brilliance slowly cleared as they grew accustomed to looking into its glare — and the Doctor saw, for the first time, the outlines, the shape of the thing which controlled this whole planet.
It was this thing which had spawned and propelled the great web till it reached out across Vortis — this creature alone whose power operated the hordes of Zarbi like an army of puppets. And it was the power of this thing, relayed through its Zarbi slaves, which spat venom through the jets of ordinary living animals and destroyed whatever stood in its way.
The Doctor saw that it was a living thing, all right. It was an enormous oval bladder which seemed composed entirely of light. It stood vertical and revolved on its own axis. As it did so the great light pulsed and throbbed with it. Its blazing elongated shape swelled and shrank in rhythm with the pulses, breathing, like a living lung.
It was towards this weird all-powerful creation, rotating slowly in the centre of the dazzling chamber, that Doctor Who and Vicki were being drawn, fight as they might against it, like tiny pieces of steel towards a colossal magnet.
In the underground caverns beneath the great web, the diggers had struck upward until their spears sank into a soft gluey substance — which, even as they watched, swelled and spat, reaching out and forming new web patterns.
The pigmy-menoptera halted and stared at this substance with slitted eyes. The gluey tentacles glowed and throbbed.
Ian, climbing in their wake, saw the glow pulsing through the darkness and called excitedly to Hetra and Vrestin.
‘The web — look! Its roots reach even down into the earth!’
Vrestin climbed upward, finding footholds on the stair-like ledges which the diggers had chopped out as they went.
‘It’s glowing!’ Vrestin panted. ‘Throbbing with light pulses!’
‘That must mean we’re below the centre itself!’ Ian exclaimed.
He motioned to the diggers to continue their work.
Doubtfully now, afraid, they attacked the earth above them, then paused. The reaching masses of the web grew brighter as they inched upward. ‘That’s it!’ Ian urged them. ‘Dig towards the light!’ Follow the brightest strands!
They will take us into its heart!’
This news halted the diggers. They wavered and paused doubtfully. But they gathered their resolve and resumed their attack on the roof, taking courage from Ian’s confidence. The heavy measured throbbing from above was now pulsing loudly in their ears.
Barbara, Prapillus, Hilio and the girl Menoptera Hlynia turned into a new, larger corridor and came stealthily down it towards the sound of a distant chirruping.
Barbara peered forward and could make out the details of a control panel at the far end of this corridor. Silently she motioned her companions on towards it. They crept along, staring cautiously all around them.
They had nearly reached the entrance to the chamber at the end of the corridor when Barbara halted them with a sign. She ventured forward to the threshold, and flattening herself against the corridor wall, peered inward.
Hastily she ducked back and crouched with the others.
‘Zarbi!’ she said.
Hilio came darting from the rear to join Barbara.
‘How many?’
‘I only saw one,’ Barbara answered, keeping her eyes on the door.
‘With venom-guns?’
Barbara shook her head. ‘No — alone, I... think...’
Hilio darted on to the door, gripping the necklet he carried, and peered inward too. Prapillus tiptoed up to join him. He touched Hilio’s winged shoulder.
‘Make sure you stop it reaching the control panel, Hilio!’ he urged.
Hilio nodded curtly. He tensed himself— and then charged through the doorway and into the chamber.
The lone Zarbi on duty turned and saw Hilio hurl himself forward, the necklet levelled at the creature’s throat. The Zarbi in alarm chirruped, dodged, and lashed swiftly with a steely claw, knocking Hilio sideways in his rush. It turned and scampered across towards the control panel. Hilio, recovering, lunged between the creature and the glowing web map, paused, feinted, then charged. He gripped the Zarbi’s foreclaw, wrenched it aside, thrust at its throat — and clipped home the sense-deadening necklet.
Immediately the Zarbi stiffened, and calmed.
Barbara, Prapillus and Hlynia hurried now through the doorway towards Hilio. Prapillus nodded with delighted approval at the immobilized Zarbi.
‘Well done, Hilio!’ he beamed.
Hilio reached out a hand and took the stalagmite spar which Hlynia was carrying. He whirled it and smashed it across the control panel, again and again.
Vicki and Doctor Who now stood perilously near the great revolving ellipse which puffed in and out and pulsed with dazzling light. They were straining desperately backward, but the pull which drew them in towards the blinding centre grew irresistibly stronger.
The whole floor beneath their lurching. feet was a gigantic, pulsating web, its mesh glittering as the super-parasite, the creature Doctor Who had called a cosmic spider, rotated and breathed.
Vicki was exhausted, and with the tiredness her will was fading.
‘I can’t struggle... any more... Doctor!’ she moaned. ‘I
can’t
...!’
Doctor Who looked desperately all around them. They were shut in alone with this burning eye-shaped monster, and all help against its immense power seemed far away.
But he urged Vicki still. ‘Don’t give in now, child. We
must
not let it win!’
‘But, Doctor... there’s no chance... nobody to help us now! And it was my fault... my fault.’
She sobbed as she felt the deadly forte pulling her trembling legs forward. The Voice boomed closer now, on a great note of triumph.
‘Approach... approach... what I will assimilate from you will enable me to reach beyond this galaxy, into the solar system... to pluck from the earth its myriad techniques... in its hundredth Christian millennium...!’
The Doctor muttered as, in spite of himself; he lurched forward a step... then another...
Suddenly a new note overlaid the echoes of the booming Voice. Doctor Who stiffened and strained his ears to catch it.
Yes — a humming, a throbbing of the same sort as they had heard from the communicators on the panel in the control room. It was speckled with an alarmed chirruping.
The noise faded again.
Then the Voice boomed out harshly, close.
‘Section Q not responding to command? Aliens in control!’
A roar of rage accompanied this surprise and Doctor Who lifted his head. He turned to Vicki and flashed her a triumphant look.
‘That sounds like help, child. Don’t give up... don’t give up...!’
But still they felt the pull of the cosmic spider drawing them in towards it, and lurched another agonizing step or two, fighting against it.
Barbara and the Menoptera stared around the control room.
‘The Doctor and Vicki should have got to the centre by now,’ Barbara murmured to Hlynia.
‘Yes... we must trust in their success.’
Prapillus had wandered inquisitively over towards the astral map. He called, ‘Barbara...!’
Barbara moved to join the old Menoptera. His eyes on the controls of Doctor Who’s control table were alive with interest. He pointed at the communicator knobs.
‘Does this thing work?’
Barbara hesitated. ‘Well, yes — I think so.’
‘Could we contact our invasion forces on it?’ Prapillus demanded. ‘Warn our people...?’
Barbara shrugged doubtfully. ‘Well... yes — if I can find the frequency. I’ve only ever seen the Doctor use it once.’
She reached and adjusted the knobs, pointing to the transmission and wavelength controls. ‘Now... that... and there... you can try it now — this is the speaker.’
Prapillus bent towards the speaker. He switched on the speaker button and called in his high-pitched treble.
‘Fortis to main force. Vortis to main force... warning.
Repeat — warning... Electron-guns are useless against the Zarbi... Sayo Plateau heavily ambushed... await instructions... acknowledge please... over.’
He paused, switching over to ‘receive’ at Barbara’s silent direction, and listened.
They waited but no answering sound came — not even the whispering spatial echoes that told of a transmitter switched on and operating on the Menoptera’s wavelength.
‘Either they haven’t heard us,’ Hilio said. ‘Or, they don’t trust us.’
‘Or I haven’t set it right,’ Barbara said, staring at the set and frowning. She took over and checked the controls. She cleared the table of its clutter and as she did so an implement caught her eye. She held it up. It was the Web Destructor, the precious weapon they had entrusted to Doctor Who! She wheeled.
‘Prapillus — look!’
Prapillus and the others stared in dismay.
‘We must take it to the centre ourselves!’ Hilio snapped.
‘But... the doctor — what happened?’ Barbara stammered. ‘Why didn’t
he
take it?’
‘They must have discovered his plan,’ Prapillus answered sombrely.
Hlynia said. ‘It was hidden under that equipment, why?’
‘We haven’t the time to stand guessing!’ Barbara said.
She turned towards the big doorway which opened off the control room into the largest corridor, ‘Let’s hurry!
Please...!’
Barbara strode to the door. Hilio took up the Web Destructor and hastened to catch her up. Prapillus and Hlynia followed, quickening their pace.
They came stealthily into the vast corridor and moved down it. From the far end a glow shone so brightly that at first Barbara thought it was a furnace. She saw that it came from beyond a huge webbed door.
She and her companions pressed on stealthily. They paused as they heard a chirruping sound somewhere and darted into a recess — a short side corridor. Hilio peered out while they waited. The corridor remained empty.
‘All clear,’ Hilio reported, and they emerged into the main corridor again and headed down towards the huge door.
‘Can you hear it?’ Hlynia whispered suddenly. She pressed her delicate hands to her temples.
‘Hear what?’ Barbara asked.
‘A... sort of... throbbing! Oh, it makes my head spin!’
Hlynia exclaimed.
Hilio came abreast of Barbara and tapped the Web Destructer he carried. ‘Remember — whatever this creature proves to be, this must be aimed towards its darker side, where it will be more vulnerable.’
Barbara nodded.
‘... and,’ Hilio reminded her, ‘we must all try and capture its attention. The one best placed will fire this and detonate the cell mutator. Understood?’
‘Understood,’ Barbara answered.
‘Zarbi!’ Prapillus suddenly yelled.
Barbara, Hilio and Hlynia froze in their steps. From a recess ahead of them a squad of Zarbi had scurried into view, driving before them the squat hulk of a sting grub, which wheeled and headed down towards them. Barbara and the Menoptera looked wildly about for cover.
‘There’s no going back!’ Prapillus shouted. We must rush them! It needs only one of us to get through with the Destructor! Come on!’